Dickey aims to follow up gem with one of his own vs. Astros

Former National League Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey can follow a teammate's mound gem with one of his own on Friday night, when the Toronto Blue Jays host the Houston Astros in game two of a four-game set at Rogers Centre.

The Blue Jays ended a seven-game losing streak in Thursday's opener thanks to
the work of starter Mark Buehrle, who allowed just two hits and two walks
while striking out a season-best nine batters in a 4-0 victory.

Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind helped back Buehrle's shutout by providing an
RBI apiece. Maicer Izturis knocked in a pair and Jose Reyes finished 3-for-4
in the victory.

"I had a lot of stuff working for me," Buehrle said.

Houston's Erik Bedard (3-8) struck out six and allowed one run on three hits
over five innings. He has lost five straight starts.

The Astros, losers in 11 of their last 13 games, didn't record a hit until the
fifth inning.

"What we witnessed tonight was an experienced major league pitcher who
executed a game plan," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "It was pretty evident
that he had a good game plan of how he was going to attack our hitters."

Dickey, a 20-game winner with the New York Mets last season before a trade to
the Blue Jays, got to 8-8 this season with an 8-3 defeat of Detroit on July 1,
but has since lost three straight starts.

He's allowed 13 runs on 19 hits in 19 innings across those outings, which have
resulted in defeats against Minnesota, Cleveland and Tampa Bay.

He's 4-6 in 11 home starts in Toronto this season and 6-8 there in 16 career
appearances with a 6.01 earned run average, his sixth-highest in any big-
league ballpark.

Dickey has split four decisions in eight lifetime meetings with Houston.

He faces Astros right-hander Jordan Lyles, who was just five years old when
Dickey was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1996.

Lyles won a combined seven games in 45 appearances with the Astros in his
initial two stints in the big leagues in 2011 and 2012, and has split eight
decisions in 15 starts this season with a 4.78 ERA in 64 2/3 innings.

The 22-year-old hasn't won since June 18 against Milwaukee, against whom he
allowed a single run on seven hits in seven innings of work.

He's 0-3 in five starts since, including a 12-5 loss to Seattle on July 21 in
which he was shelled for eight hits and 10 runs in four innings.

The Astros won five of the first six games played by the two franchises,
including a three-game sweep in Houston in 2005 and two of three in Toronto in
2011.